Walkabout

Today I had quite an eventful day in the fact that I made it into town so that my daughter could busk playing violin and then returned home to go for a walk in the nature reserve not far from home.

 Jordy looked up on the internet the opening hours of the Adelaide City Council and assured me they would be open so that she could purchase a busking permit to play in the city mall. As it turns out they were not open and we wandered around town for a little while. We bought lunch at the central market (if I didn't have so many bags and cases to carry I might have taken some photos, it really is jam packed full of colour and activity) Then we took our lunch and sat in Victoria square to watch the traffic whizz by whilst  sitting on the green. I took these panoramic photos showing 2/3rds of the way round the square

After lunch I returned home and decided it was such a nice day that I would head up to the reserve to go for a walk and pick fennel leaves to make a dye bath. Dyeing has really captured my imagination but as usual I want every thing to happen now. Whilst out and about I took lots of photos, some quite interesting I think.

 Dried Fennel heads

Love the vibrancy of the eucalyptus gum below - leuchoxylon rosea (I think)

Dried thistle plants

 Big grubs getting bigger, love the colour of the caterpillar!

Same bush but orange bugs

 Dried gumnuts

Thistle mania

Salvation Jane, only a salvation in times of drought. The farmers used to allow their cattle to feed on this otherwise pesty weed. I've picked the flowers to do some solar dyeing.

 Look carefully at the picture below

This weed is rampant with those orange bugs I photgraphed before. Bugs having a picnic on the seed heads.

Salvation Jane on the path home

 Seed heads in the glowing rays of the sun.

Now to heat the cauldron and put on a brew of fennel for dyeing...